Thermwood expands LSAM product line yet again with larger LSAM 1540
Thermwood Corporation, the manufacturer of the LSAM large-scale thermoplastic composite additive systems, is introducing new and larger machine models: the LSAM 1540 and 1520. The LSAM additive manufacturing system line is already the broadest in the industry with additive printers from a 5×5 foot table to large dual gantry print and trim systems up to 10×40 feet. Machines longer than 40 feet are available, but several 10×40 systems are the largest built to date.
With this new announcement, the large dual gantry print and trim machines are now available in a 15-foot width in addition to the current 10-foot width tables. As with the ten-foot-wide tables, the new fifteen-foot-wide table machines are available in lengths from twenty feet on, in ten-foot increments.
New heavier gantry
The new machines utilize the new wide gantry design that was first developed for Thermwood’s LSAM 1010. The LSAM 1010 has both a print head and a trim head mounted on the same gantry, hence the need for a wide gantry even though the table is only 10×10 feet. The dual-head combination on the 1010 weighs over 7,000 pounds, requiring a significant engineered gantry structure.
The smallest table length available in the fifteen-foot width LSAM is twenty-foot, however, because of the modular design of the table and support walls, this length can be increased by ten-foot increments. The most popular table lengths to date for the ten-foot-wide table LSAM machines have been twenty feet and forty feet.
40mm or 60mm Print Core
The new machines are equipped with the large LSAM print head structure which can be equipped with either the 40mm or 60mm print core. The 40mm core can print most polymers at about 200 pounds per hour while the 60mm core can print at over 500 pounds per hour. They can also be equipped with Thermwood’s patented Vertical Layer Print system, which makes it technically possible to print parts up to fifteen foot wide and as tall as the length of the table.
The new machines are equipped with all the advanced features of the entire LSAM line including the thermal sensor layer automation system which automatically controls bead temperature at layer fusion producing virtually perfect bonding between layers.
As the market becomes more comfortable with the capability and reliability of LSAM technology, the new sizes open interesting opportunities in areas where really, really large parts are needed.
Three print head options
Thermwood offers three print head options on various machines with maximum print rates of 100, 200 and over 500 pounds per hour. Although many believe that print rate determines how fast a layer can be printed, it is actually polymer cooling that determines how much time is needed between layers.
The print head output then determines how many beads can be printed in that time and thus how large a part can be printed by that print head using that polymer. The Thermwood LSAM 60mm print head with 500 pounds per hour maximum print rate can print the largest part layers possible today.
With the introduction of the smaller LSAM Additive Printers plus these new wide table flagship LSAMs, Thermwood’s large-scale additive manufacturing product line is, by far, the broadest available anywhere, with LSAM models from 5×5 foot to these new fifteen-foot wide flagship models.
